Dec. 15, 2009 — If you’re in trouble, Susanville just might be a pretty good place to live. Once again, the local residents and businesses have revealed the true content of their character and rallied to support their fellow community members in crisis.

According to Kim Baxley, a waitress at the Diamond Mountain Casino who’s made a name for herself putting on spaghetti dinners to help the families of young local cancer victims, even a blast of unseasonably cold winter weather couldn’t spoil the Monday, Dec. 7 spaghetti feed she’d organized to benefit the children of the Mountain LifeFlight crewmembers who were killed when their helicopter crashed near Hallelujah Junction on Saturday, Nov. 14.

All the proceeds raised went to the children of flight nurse Clint Reger and paramedic Chris Ritz — Matthew Reger, 7, Evan Reger, 5, and Kenton Ritz, 9. Baxley said the event generated nearly $7,000.   

James Bradshaw, the pilot of the ill-fated Mountain LifeFlight helicopter, did not have any children, and his family did not wish to accept any money raised at the event.   

“It was very nice,” Baxley said. “The weather hampered us a little bit because it was so cold that night, but the kids were very happy. It was an amazing night, and I want to say thank you to the community for supporting these kids who will be spending their first Christmas without their fathers. We all hope they will have a happy holiday.”   

Diners paid $5 each for the piping hot spaghetti dinner with salad and French bread as Susanville found itself in the midst of a wintry cold spell.   

“It was so cold out there in the tent you could see people’s breath between bites of spaghetti,” Baxley said. “I think it’s important these children know the community cares enough to come out and support them on such a cold, cold night. It was the coldest night of the year so far.”   

Even though Baxley has organized many similar events over the past few years, she said it would be impossible for her to pull off one of these benefits without the strong support of the business community and various community organizations.   

She said Susanville Supermarket, Safeway, Idaho Grocery and High Desert State Prison donated all the food — reducing the food cost to zero and allowing all the proceeds to go to the children. Lassen Beverage donated all the drinks.   

The Susanville Indian Rancheria donated the space for the dinner — the Diamond Willow Room and the large outdoor tent connected to it — and dozens of Diamond Mountain Casino employees donated their time to prepare the food, work the dinner and clean up the mess after it was all over.   

“We have such a great bunch of people working here at the Casino,” Baxley said. “We’ve really become a family when it comes to putting on one of these benefits. Everybody gets together and we say, “OK, what do we need to do?’”   

Baxley said when she put out a call for desserts for the event, the response overwhelmed her. She said desserts came in from the local 4-H club, the Cub Scouts and the Blue Star Mothers organization.   

In addition to his responsibilities as a paramedic, Ritz served as a trustee on the Susanville School District Board of Trustees. Baxley said SSD Superintendent Gary McIntire got on the phone and the Internet and personally arranged for the donation of many desserts.   

The business community’s support of the event through the donation of raffle prizes also overwhelmed Baxley. But the businesses weren’t the only ones to jump on that fundraising bandwagon as many individuals also brought a variety of raffle items with them when they came to the event.

“Oh, I couldn’t even name all the businesses that donated raffle prizes if I had to,” Baxley said. “There are simply too many to mention. I think most of the businesses in town donated something, and we’re so very thankful to all of them for their support. We had more than usual.”   

Somebody had to sell all those raffle tickets to the diners, and Baxley said the Lassen Youth Football Cheerleaders stepped up to the challenge.   

“They sold every single raffle ticket we had,” said an astonished Baxley. “They did a really good job.”   

Members of the Susanville Soroptimist Club volunteered their time, worked the food lines and served the hungry diners.   

Baxley said Julie James creates all the flyers for her benefits and “really brings them to life.”   

As a special gift, Baxley said Jim Wolcott, manager of the Lassen County Fair, donated carnival armbands and free passes to the fair and all the shows next year for the children and their families.   

Baxley estimated as many as 600 community members attended the event “based on the amount of spaghetti we used.”   

For more information on this fundraiser, call Baxley at 252-1100.